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U.S. Government Releases a Controversial Memo; SpaceX Prepares to Launch A New Rocket; Companies Aim for "Access" in Super Bowl Ads
Aired February 05, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: A controversial memo released by the U.S. government is the first story we`re explaining today on CNN 10. It`s
related to investigations into whether Russia interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and whether people who worked in the campaign of
President Donald Trump inappropriately coordinated with Russia.
The Trump administration says there was no collusion with Russia, and Russia has repeatedly denied meddling in the American election. But the
U.S. Federal Bureau of investigation, the FBI, has been investigating this and so have intelligence committees in the Senate and the House of
Representatives. Republicans with the House committee produced a four-page memo and released it on Friday after President Donald Trump declassified
it. And politicians wrestled with it and each other throughout the weekend.
There`s a controversial law in the U.S. that allows the government to spy on American citizens. To do that, investigators need court approval. They
have to show the court there`s probable cause that the U.S. citizen is working with the foreign government. In October of 2016, American
government investigators got court approval to start spying on an adviser to Donald Trump`s presidential campaign.
But the Republican memo says that the information that investigators used to show the court probable cause was not proven to be true, that it came
from a former British spy who is caught desperate that Donald Trump not get elected, and that the info was partially paid for by the Democratic
National Committee and the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
The memo says investigators did not tell this to the court. So, Republicans say government investigators abused their power to spy on
Donald Trump`s campaign and President Trump says it totally vindicates him in the Russia investigations and that the fact that they continue is an
American disgrace. But the FBI says it has grave concerns about the memo, specifically, quote, material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact
the memo`s accuracy. Its probe started in July of 2016, months before the court allowed spying on the Trump adviser.
And Democrats say the memo is misleading and that it highlights only part of the reason why U.S. investigators were monitoring the Trump campaign,
suggesting there`s more evidence to suspect it had inappropriate contact with Russia. They say the memo`s release is a Republican attempt to
obstruct and undermine the FBI`s Russia investigation.
The two main U.S. political parties are deeply divided over this memo, and wherever it leads, investigators say there`s not much chance now, at least
in the House Intelligence Committee that Democrats and Republicans will be working together going forward.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: SpaceX is about to make the ground seriously crumble. The new rocket, the Falcon Heavy, is about to launch
for the first time and this thing is big. It`s lifting from the historic Kennedy Center launch pad 39A, which is where Apollo 11 launched humans to
the moon, and once again, the pad will be the site of space flight history.
Once Falcon Heavy has lift off, SpaceX says it will be the most powerful operational rocket in the world by a factor of two.
The rocket is powered by 27 engines and SpaceX says when all engines are at full throttle, the rocket has 5 million pounds of thrust, which is the
equivalent of 18 747s. The going cost for a launch, according to the company, $90 million. But that`s just a fraction of what a launch would
cost with the SLS, the heavy lift rocket that the government has been working on for years.
Now, the Falcon Heavy is basically three of the company`s Falcon IX rockets, which they`ve been launching since 2010, strapped together.
Originally, the company had thought that putting together three of these tried and true rockets would be relatively easy rocket science, but it
turns out it was much more complicated than Elon Musk and his team had anticipated, and the launch has been delayed for several years. And even
though the rocket is expected to finally take flight, Musk himself acknowledges that this first test launch has a high likelihood of failure.
So, when you`re launching the rocket that everybody has been waiting years for and has a good shot of just blowing up -- well, if you`re Musk, master
of PR, you go big and you launch your own car. Yet, the rocket`s payload will be Musk`s own cherry red Tesla roadster and it will be playing David
Bowie`s "Space Oddity" on repeat.
The intended destination: Mars orbit, that is if it doesn`t blow up on ascent. And while sending a Tesla to space might be a silly PR stunt, the
launch is anything but. The rocket was designed from the start to ferry people to the moon and to Mars. A successful launch would put SpaceX, a
giant lip forward, towards getting to deep space. Oh, and did I mention that SpaceX is hoping to land all three first stage boosters? Yes, that`s
also happening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Last night`s Super Bowl, the American football championship, was forecast to be the coldest ever, with the highs in the single digits
Fahrenheit. Of course, fan who could afford to get inside the indoor stadium would have the benefit of climate control. And a few days before
the game, the cheap seats were selling for several thousand dollars each. Still, that`s cheaper than buying advertising.
America`s most watched sporting event commands prices of more than $5 million for a 30-second commercial. What are businesses buying?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JON SARLIN, CNNMONEY PRODUCER: What would a company like Coca-Cola that everybody already knows spend millions of dollars to remind you that they
still exist? Why does Coca-Cola want to buy a Super Bowl ad?
To answer this question, we brought in a smart person who gets paid to get inside your head. Meet Amy Avery.
AMY AVERY, CHIEF INTELLIGENCE OFFICER, DROGA5: Chief intelligence officer at Droga5, Ad Week and ad agent`s top creative agency.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me guess, faking your own death to get out of your own Verizon contract?
AVERY: You know, people around me ask all the time because I do measurement, is $5.1 million really a reasonable amount to charge for that?
And why would a brand ever do it?
Yes, you`re buying exposure, but that`s not really what you`re buying there. You`re buying access into conversation. You`re buying access into
a memorable experience. You`re trigging emotion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh man!
SARLIN: One truth about advertising is that it usually targets your subconscious more than it does your conscious mind.
AVERY: So much of advertising is built for a long tale. People say it doesn`t work and they`re like because I didn`t see something and then go
buy it. And I`m like that`s not what we`re counting on actually. We`re counting on this long tale.
SARLIN: For some big purchases like a car, you might research it, give it a long thought, and that`s where the details of an ad you saw about an APR
deal like kick in.
AD ANNOUNCER: At zero percent financing for 60 months.
SARLIN: But for most of the things that you buy every day, you don`t really think about why you`re doing it. It`s that brief moment before you
grab a product off a shelf that those countless you`ve seen over and over and over again take effect. Should you go with the cheaper you`ve never
heard of, or the more expensive brand you saw on TV?
So, there`s this study done and it took two items that were exactly the same. But one had a brand on it that people knew and the other one was the
same product about the brand. People preferred the exact same item branded like 24 percent. After four years later, and that brand slashed their ad
budget. The same test was done and the brand`s perceived quality was cut in half.
AD CHARACTER: (INAUDIBLE) for a perfect meal in just six minutes. Buy some today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will, I will.
SARLIN: One of the reasons for is that not only does not advertising make your product seem less desirable, it also raises the perceived quality of
your cheaper generic competitors. You`re perception of a difference between product you know X and product you`ve never heard of Y, it shrinks.
And advertising does not just meant to make you go out and buy something. Yes, that is a big part of it, but it also works to make people happy with
the purchase that they already made.
People in the ad world call this reinforcement. You want to know that the thing you bought is good and seeing an ad makes you enjoy the product that
you already have more. So, without ads on TV to make you feel better about the purchase, you might think the item is worse.
AVERY: And when people talk about how it doesn`t work, I`m like mathematically it does. I mean, they wouldn`t keep doing it. These
companies are massive companies with a lot of investment behind making sure that it`s working and tracking when it`s not.
There is 20 to 30 percent of your sales typically come from advertising. So, yes, you`re still going to have sales. Your company is not -- Coca-
Cola is not going out of business if they stop. But they`re no longer counting on that percentage of sales. So, if they have 100 sales, they`re
going to have 80 sales.
SARLIN: Let`s go back to that Coca-Cola ad. There`s family, there`s friends, and not a lot of Coke. The soda is kind of secondary here. What
it`s really doing is stirring up your emotions. It`s making you feel something, family, patriotism. Coca-Cola knows that feeling, that
emotional connection is what`s going to make your hand want to reach for the red bottle.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: If you like zip lines but you generally find them too boring, too slow, too short or too cheap, this could be the antidote. It`s a little
under two miles, you could zip along at almost 100 miles per hour. You could go side by side with a fellow thrill seeker and you`d see amazing
mountain vistas of the United Arab Emirates.
Aboard the Guinness World Record for a longest zip line. Riders can wiz by for up to three minutes. The price: $177.
Which may cross the line for those incline to save a dime when going flying. But if you find zip lines expensible, there are few thrills that
are more suspenseful. I`m going to go before you tell to zip it.
I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.
END
